Cook County IL Archives History - Books .....History Of Chicago, 1876, Part 4 1876 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com October 2, 2007, 11:33 pm Book Title: History Of Chicago 1856. At the close of my railway article for 1856 I made the following synopsis of the railways and the business of the city for that year. The following list embraces the trunk roads actually completed and in operation, with their branch and extension lines, centering in Chicago: Miles. Chicago and Milwaukee..........................85 Racine and Mississippi.........................86 Chicago, St. Paul and Fond du Lac.............121 Milwaukee and Mississippi, Western Divis'n....105 Galena and Chicago Union......................121 Fox River Valley...............................33 Wisconsin Central...............................6 Beloit Branch..................................20 Beloit and Madison.............................17 Mineral Point..................................17 Galena (Fulton) Air Line......................135 Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska.....................13 Chicago, Burlington and Quincy................210 Burlington and Missouri.......................30 Northern Cross................................100 Hannibal and St. Joseph........................30 Chicago and Rock Island.......................182 Mississippi and Missouri, 1st Division.........55 do do 3rd do ..........13 Peoria and Bureau Valley.......................47 Peoria and Oquawka............................143 Chicago, Alton and St. Louis..................283 Illinois Central..............................704 Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne and Chicago..............383 Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana........242 Cincinnati, Peru and Chicago...................28 Michigan Central..............................282 New Albany and Salem..........................284 11 Trunk and 17 Branch and Extension lines..3,676 Taking the portions of the above lines which lie in the State of Illinois, and adding the length of the different roads completed in the central portions of the State, we find that Illinois now contains TWO THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-ONE MILES OF COMPLETED RAILWAY. Five years ago we had only ninety-five miles. These facts show a most gratifying progress, of which every citizen of Illinois may well be proud. The total number of trains which now (midwinter) arrive at and depart from Chicago daily is 104. Adding 15 per cent. for the number as soon as navigation opens, and we have 120. The amount of freight, the number of passengers, and the wealth and the business which these trains daily pour into the lap of Chicago can easily be appreciated by those who are on the ground and will take pains to examine the subject for themselves. The earnings of our different railway lines during the past year have been of the most satisfactory character. We should like to see the receipts of the different lines centering in other cities, that a comparison might be made. When it is remembered that five years ago we had but forty miles of railway, earning perhaps $40,000, the contrast is truly amazing. We present the following TABLE, showing the Earnings of the Railroads centering in Chicago, for the year 1856. Passengers Freight Mail, etc. Total Chi. & Mil., our estimate ------ ------ ------ 275,000.00 Chi., St. P. & Fond du Lac 25,507.38 47,721.41 ------ 73,528.79 G. & C. U. 844,421.50 1,404,294.19 26,895.09 2,272,610.78 Chi., B. & Q. 810,062.83 432,570.13 13,221.43 1,255,854.39 Chi. & R. I. 728,966.26 570,712.69 27,350.00 1,327,028.95 C., A. & St. L., our estimate ------ ------ ------ 600,000.00 Illinois Central 693,048.93 630,934.91 208,134.97 1,532,118.81 M. S. & N. I. ------ ------ ------ 2,595,630.22 Mich. Central 1,461,414.41 1,098,650.15 90,170.92 2,650,235.37 N. A. & Salem 345,588.54 348,555.54 22,020.00 716,193.78 Total 13,298,201.09 MOVEMENT OF PASSENGERS. The movement of passengers forms a new and interesting feature in our railway statistics. The returns of the four principal roads running west from the city show the following West East Thro'. Way. Total. Thro'. Way. Total. C., St. P. & F. 2,217 26,846 29,063 2,530 26,579 29,109 G. & C. U. 72,707 199,766 272,473 42,552 169,907 212,459 C., B. & Q. 31,433 100,540 131,973 25,492 95,940 121,431 C. & R. I. 48,978 157,178 206,157 30,439 138,575 169,014 Total 155,335 484,330 639,666 101,013 431,001 532,013 This table shows that these four railways alone have taken west 107,653 passengers more than they brought back people enough to redeem another sovereign State from the dominion of the panther and the savage, and add another star to the banner of our glorious Union. During the early part of the year a large emigration found its way to Kansas and Nebraska over the Chicago, Alton & St. Louis Railway, by land, and also on the Ohio and other tributaries of the Mississippi. Many were also landed from the lower lake and the Collingwood steamers at Milwaukee and other cities north of us, so that there can scarcely be a doubt that at least 250,000 people found their way west of the meridian of Chicago and north of the southern line of Missouri during the past year. If the passenger movement on the Michigan Southern corresponds with that on the Michigan Central, the above results agree with sufficient accuracy with those of the four leading Western lines. They would be as follows: West East Thro'. Way. Total. Thro'. Way. Total. Mich. Central. 117,662 215,119 332,781 64,187 194,697 258,884 M.S. (estimate) 117,662 215,119 332,781 64,187 194,697 258,884 Total 235,324 530,238 665,562 128,374 389,394 517,768 This table would show, on the above hypothesis, that these two lines brought 147,794 passengers west more than they took back, leaving about 40,000 to remain in this city or to find their way west of us by other lines. If we make a fair estimate for the movement of passengers on the Milwaukee and St. Louis roads, from which no returns were received, the total movement on the principal railway lines centering at Chicago would be about 3,350,000 passengers. This is the last of four leading statistical articles published since the first of January lust, and we now give at a single glance the main facts contained in all of them. We present, therefore, the following GENERAL SUMMARY. Total number of miles of railway cen- tering in Chicago Feb. 20, 1852...........................40 Total number of miles now completed and in operation.....3,676 Increase in 1856...........................................915 Total number to be completed in from five to eight years............................................6,929 Total number of miles of railway in the State of Illinois now in operation..............................2,761 Increase in 1856 (Only 95 miles were completed five years ago.)..............................................351 Increase in the State in five years, (over 500 miles per year)..............................2,666 Total earnings of all the railways centering in Chicago for the year 1856 (Five years ago they were only $40,000)...............................$17,343,242.83 Increase in five years..............................17,303,242.83 Increase of 1856 over 1855...........................4,045,041.74 Total number of trains arriving and departing daily (midwinter) 104; adding 15 cent, as soon as navigation opens.................................120 Population of Chicago in 1852...........................38,783 Population of Chicago Jan. 1, 1857, estimate (in June, 1855, it was 83,509).......................110,000 Total receipts of grain in Chicago for the year 1855, bushels............................20,487,953 Total receipts of grain—being the largest primary grain port in the world—for the year 1856 (increase in 1856 over 20 per cent.) bushels......24,674,824 Total shipments of grain from the port of Chicago for the year 1856, bushels................21,583,221 Total amount of corn received in 1856, bushels......11,888,398 Total amount of wheat received in 1856, bushels......9,392,365 Total number of hogs alive and dressed received in Chicago for 1855-6.......................308,539 Total number of shipments alive and dressed............170,831 Averaging the weight at only 200 lbs. and the price at $5 per hundred, the value of the hogs received would be.................................$3,585,880 Number of barrels of beef packed in 1856................33,058 Receipts of lumber at the port of Chicago for the year 1856—being the largest lumber market in the world-feet................................456,673,169 Receipts of lead for the year 1856, lbs..............9,527,506 Now-laid up in the port of Chicago, steamers and sail vessels.........................................245 Total number of vessels arriving in Chicago for the year 1856..............................7,328 Total tonnage of vessels arriving in this port for the year 1856........................1,545,379 Amount of imposts received at the Chicago Custom House on foreign goods for the past year.....$162,994.31 Total amount of capital invested in manufactures during the year 1856—showing an increase of $1,464,400 over 1855..............................$7,759,400 Total number of hands employed—showing an increase over 1855, of 1,833..........................10,573 Total value of manufactured articles, showing an increase of $4,483,572................$15,515,063 Total amount invested during the year 1856 in improvements, stores, dwellings, hotels, etc. showing an increase over 1855, of $1,973,370......$5,708,624 Total number of passengers carried west by four principal railways leading out of Chicago.......639,666 Total number remaining west above those who returned on these four lines.........................107,653 Total number of passengers moved on all the roads centering in Chicago...............................3,350,000 The above facts and figures will be regarded with special satisfaction by all our citizens, and by the people of the Northwest generally. They show a healthy, but rapid and most astonishing progress. It may be doubted whether the whole history of the civilized world can furnish a parallel to the vigorous growth and rapid development of the country which has Chicago for its commercial metropolis. When it is remembered that twenty years ago she was not an incorporated city, and less than a quarter of a century since, the Indians still had possession of the largest portion of this magnificent country, these facts, stubborn and incontestible though they be, seem more like the dreams of some vagrant imagination than sober matters of reality, which scores of men still among us have themselves seen and realized. Twenty years ago Chicago was an insignificant town at the southern end of Lake Michigan, importing nearly all her produce from Western New York and Northern Ohio. Last year she shipped 21,583,221 bushels of grain, and her total receipts were over twenty-four and a half millions. Half a dozen years ago she had only a single railroad some twenty miles long entering the city; now she has 3,676 miles completed and in operation, and the earnings of these lines for the last year amount to the enormous sum of $17,343,242.83. The increase of earnings during the past year is over four millions of dollars. More than a hundred trams of cars arrive and depart daily. Her trade in lumber exceeds by far that of any other city in the world, amounting to 456,673,169 feet. Ten years ago her manufactures were in their infancy and were scarcely worthy of commendation. Last year the capital invested amounted to $7,759,400, and the value of manufactured articles to more than FIFTEEN MILLIONS AND A HALF OF DOLLARS. Half a dozen years ago Chicago was reproached as being a city of wooden shanties; last year she invested in magnificent stores, many of them with superb marble and iron fronts, elegant palatial residences and other improvements, $5,708,624. And wonderful as has been the progress of the city, it has not been able to keep pace with the improvements of the country by which she is surrounded. The statistics of the movement of population westward show that people enough found their homes west of Chicago during the past year to form two entire States. Nor is this a movement of mere human bone and muscle; it is a concentration upon our rich rolling prairies and amid our beautiful groves of a vast host of active, vigorous, intelligent men, who plant schools and churches wherever they settle, and bring with them all the elements of an enterprising Christian civilization—a deep, controlling, ever abiding reverence for liberty and for law. They are laying the foundations for an empire of whose wealth, intelligence and power the sun in all his course has never seen the equal. Ere the next quarter of a century shall have rolled away, the beautiful valleys of the Upper Missouri, the Yellow Stone, the Platte, and the Kansas, aye, and even that of the Red River of the North, will all have been settled, and this ever-deepening current of emigration will meet an equally resistless stream from the Pacific coast, and roll back in mingling eddies from the summits of the Rocky Mountains. Fourteen States as large as Ohio, but on an average more wealthy and populous, will have grown up on the magnificent country between the Lakes and the Rocky Mountains, and how many will repose upon the "Pacific slope" we dare not attempt to predict. During the last year our steamers have run without interruption to the head of Lake Superior, and our exports to the Atlantic seaboard have largely increased. Nor is this all. The Dean Richmond was loaded with wheat at the wharves of Chicago and Milwaukee and discharged her cargo into the warehouses of Liverpool. The practicability, and the profit too, of direct trade with Europe have been demonstrated; and as soon as navigation opens, other vessels will follow in the track of the Dean Richmond; and in the judgment of those who have most carefully studied this subject, a very few years will render the departure of vessels for the grain-consuming countries of Europe so common as scarcely to excite remark. Our Canadian neighbors are becoming fully convinced that their best interests require greater facilities for the transit of western produce to the ocean and the enlargement of the Welland Canal and the construction of the Georgian Bay or the Ottawa Ship Canal is now regarded as a prime necessity of commerce. Our railway lines are constantly being extended through the magnificent country west of us a country whose mineral, agricultural and commercial resources no man has yet had the nerve to estimate. To the citizen of Chicago who has at heart the material, social and religious welfare of the millions who are to succeed us, every aspect of the horizon east, west, north and south, is full of promise and joyous hope. Presenting our congratulations to the readers of the Press, we offer to them, to all, the inspiring motto, COURAGE! ONWARD!! The following little address contains some facts which perhaps will excuse its insertion here: EXTENT AND RESOURCES OF THE NORTHWEST, TRADE WITH CANADA, ETC. Remarks of Wm. Bross, Esq., at the Great Railway Celebration at Montreal, Wednesday, Nov. 12th, 1856, in response to the toast "The City of Chicago," as reported in the Montreal Gazette, Nov. 13th. Wm. BROSS, ESQ., Editor of the Chicago Democratic Press, responded. He thanked the last speaker for the flattering mention that had been made of Chicago, and said: This is eminently, Sir, a practical age. And while this is true, it is not wanting in those elements which appeal to and arouse the nobler and more generous emotions of the soul. The facts and the figures, which represent the onward progress of our Christian civilization, so far from being dry and uninteresting, are themselves eloquent and absorbing, and even the most exalted genius has not disdained to embody them in our literature, and to celebrate their benign influence upon the happiness of mankind in the magic numbers of poetry. Next to Christianity itself, commerce has the most direct and powerful influence to bind together, in a community of interest and feeling, all the families of our race, and to cultivate those kindlier sympathies which teach man to recognize a brother in his fellow man in whatever land or clime he may be found. This celebration is intended to honor the opening of another great thoroughfare from the teeming prairies of the West to the Atlantic seaboard. While others have enjoyed the pleasing task of dwelling on the social themes suggested by this event, and believing as I do in the eloquence of facts and figures, will you permit me, Sir, to notice its great commercial importance. Canadian enterprise was never more wisely employed than when it devoted its energies to complete another highway from the Mississippi to Montreal and Quebec, and to Portland in Maine, the most eastern, as she certainly is one of the fairest stars in our glorious galaxy of States. Permit me, in this connection, to notice briefly the extent and rapidity of settlement, and the resources of the magnificent country of which Chicago is the commercial centre, and which you have bound to your City by iron bands by the completion of the Grand Trunk Railway. Let any one study carefully the map of the Northwest, and he will find within the bounds of the United States, lying between Lake Michigan and the Rocky Mountains, and within the reach of the trade of the lakes south, say the latitude of Alton, 700,000 square miles of territory—enough to form fourteen States as large as Ohio. It is very easy to repeat these figures, but let us make some comparisons in order that we may form some just and definite conception of their magnitude. All the States east of the Mississippi, except Wisconsin, Illinois and Florida, contain only about 700,000 square miles. Again, England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, constituting the British empire, leading, as her position is in the civilization, wealth and power of the world, contain only 115,000 square miles, and yet they have a population of 26,000,000. The countries of Turkey, Austria and France contain in the aggregate 361,000 square miles, and sustain a population of 84,000,000. The climate of the region under consideration is exactly fitted to produce a hardy and enterprising people. Its mineral deposits of iron, lead, copper and coal are unsurpassed in extent and richness, and, unbroken by mountains, its agricultural resources are exhaustless and truly amazing. It is said by competent authority that every acre will maintain its man; but giving ten to each, within the next half dozen centuries, if peace and prosperity crown the land, it is destined to contain 450,000,000 of people. Such is the vast and magnificent country with which you have become socially and commercially connected at all times and in all seasons by the Grand Trunk, the Great Western, and the Michigan Central Railways. The rapidity with which the borders of this immense region—for at least five- sevenths of it is still the home of the panther, the buffalo and the savage—is one of the most astonishing wonders of the age. Within half the lifetime of many who hear me, there were not ten thousand white inhabitants in all this territory; their number now will range from one and a half to two millions. Twenty years ago Chicago was a small town at the southern end of Lake Michigan, and at night the howl of the prairie wolf might be heard from all its dwellings; now it is a city of more than a hundred thousand inhabitants. Twenty years ago Chicago imported nearly all her pork, beef and flour; this year she will export 20,000,000 bushels of grain, and her beef, both in quantity and quality, leads the markets of the world. Five years ago the State of Illinois had completed 95 miles of railways; now she has more than 2,400. At that time there was but one railway, forty miles long, entering Chicago; there are now ten trunk and a great number of branch lines, and counting in most cases but a single State beyond our own, there are now more than three thousand miles of railway centering in the city, and on these more than a hundred trains of cars arrive and depart daily. The earnings of these roads last year reached the enormous sum of $13,300,000, and this year they will amount to from 17 to 20,000,000 of dollars. What is a matter of special pride is, that some of these lines are among the best paying roads in the Union. But the country is increasing, if possible, much faster than Chicago, its commercial metropolis. Only some seven or eight years ago, Minnesota was organized into a territory, and her white inhabitants were told by a few hundreds; now she has at least 130,000, and will knock at the door of Congress at the next session for admission as a sovereign State. But, Sir, it may be interesting to you to know what the extent of the trade between the ports of Canada and Chicago is. And here let me acknowledge my indebtedness for these figures to J. Edward Wilkins, Esq., the very able and excellent Consul of Her Britannic Majesty at Chicago: IMPORTS. Vessels. Tons. 1854 5 1,193 £5,178 2 6 $24,855 1855 77 16,617 28,856 6 8 138,520 1856, to Nov. 1 95 22,664 40,892 8 4 194,843 EXPORTS. Vessels. Tons. 1854 6 1,482 £16,429 7 6 $79,101 1855 61 13,010 173,922 1 8 834,826 1856, to Nov. 1 97 23,377 174,838 5 9 829,223 These figures, it should be borne in mind, represent the trade in British vessels alone. The exports from Chicagd to Canadian ports are much larger than the figures here given, as produce is shipped largely by the Collingwood and the Michigan Central lines, by Ogdensburg and by independent American vessels. The total amount of sales this year at Chicago to Canadian merchants is estimated by Mr. Wilkins at about $2,500,000. This large trade has sprung up mainly within the last two years, and owes its success to the enlightened statesmanship of those who framed and secured the passage of the reciprocity treaty. But, Sir, we, of Chicago, hope that this trade is but in its infancy. The Creator when he formed the great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, intended that the commerce of the mighty and teeming West should be borne on their broad bosom to the ocean, and I think, Sir, it requires no great amount of geographical and philosophical sagacity to discover that while Chicago is to be the great central commercial city of the North American continent, Montreal is to bo one of the great commercial emporiums of the seaboard. That is virtually your position. It needs but the enlarging of the Welland Canal and the construction of another great work, the Georgian Bay and Ontario Ship Canal, to secure for Montreal this proud position beyond a peradventure. We have an earnest of what can be done. Only a few weeks ago the Dean Richmond was loaded at Chicago and Milwaukee, passed out through your magnificent river and canals, and landed her cargo of wheat on the docks of Liverpool. This, Sir, I regard as one of the greatest triumphs of commercial enterprise. But let not the merchants of Montreal fear that, if the Georgian Bay Canal be built, and the Welland enlarged, the rich trade of the West will go by her. So far from that, it will make one of its chief depots here. Lines of propellers will bring the produce of the West here, and from them it will be transhipped in Ocean going steamers. May we not hope, Sir, that Montreal merchants will give us such a line next year on the opening of navigation? Let it be understood that Chicago merchants can import speedily nnd surely goods from Europe by this line, and our word for it, it will not be three years before Montreal will secure the lion's share of the trade of the West. I am well aware, Sir, that these remarks may be condemned, and perchance excite the ridicule of my friends on the other side of the line. The far-seeing sagacity of DeWitt Clinton planned, and New York enterprise built, the Erie Canal, thus securing for a time for the great American metropolis the vast trade of the mighty West. But, Sir, there is enough for them and for you. Commerce knows no national lines. Protect her, and she blesses alike the loyal subjects of the British Queen and those who recline proudly beneath the Stars and Stripes of our own glorious Union. Aye, Sir, she has bound us, and may she continue to bind us together in a community of interest and feeling, and accursed be the hand that would sever these bonds, so productive of everything that promotes the onward progress of Christian civilization. I give you, Sir, in conclusion— "Montreal and Chicago — England, Canada, and the American Union; in all efforts to promote the arts of peace, and to secure the advancement of our race in intelligence and Christian civilization, may they be 'NOW AND FOREVER, ONE AND INSEPERABLE.'" 1857 From our railway review for 1857, prepared by myself, the following synopsis is taken. The following list embraces the trunk roads actually completed and in operation, with their branch and extension lines, centering in Chicago: Miles. Chicago and Milwaukee................................85 Kenosha and Rockford.................................11 Racine and Mississippi...............................86 Chicago, St. Paul and Fond du Lac...................131 Milwaukee and Mississippi, Western Divis'n..........130 Galena and Chicago Union............................121 Fox River Valley.....................................34 Wisconsin Central.....................................8 Beloit Branch........................................20 Beloit and Madison...................................17 Mineral Point........................................32 Dubuque and Pacific..................................29 Galena (Fulton) Air Line............................136 Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska...........................36 Chicago, Burlington and Quincy......................210 Burlington and Missouri..............................35 Quincy and Chicago..................................100 Hannibal and St. Joseph..............................65 Chicago and Rock Island.............................182 Mississippi and Missouri, 1st Division...............55 do do 2nd do..................20 do do 3rd do..................13 Peoria and Bureau Valley.............................47 Peoria and Oquawka..................................143 Chicago, Alton and St. Louis........................284 Illinois Central....................................704 Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne and Chicago....................383 Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana..............242 Cincinnati, Peru and Chicago.........................28 Michigan Central....................................282 New Albany and Salem................................284 11 Trunk and 20 Branch and Extension lines........3,953 The above table shows an increase to the Chicago system of railroads during the past year, of 277 miles. Though falling very far short of the progress of each of the past few years, considering the season of disaster and panic of the past few months, it is all and even much more than could have been expected. Most of this increase has been added in the State of Iowa. Adding the length of the completed lines in the central part of the State to that portion of the lines in the above table that lie within her boundaries, we find that Illinois has TWO THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE' MILES OF RAILWAY completed and in operation. The exact figures may vary a trifle from this result, but the difference cannot be a dozen miles either way. In 1850 Illinois had only 95 miles of railway completed. Such a result in so short a period is a just cause of honest pride to every citizen of our noble State. The number of trains arriving and departing daily does not differ materially from that of the previous year, when we found them to be one hundred and twenty. There is not an hour in the day unbroken by the screaming whistle of the locomotive, and some hours the screeching is scarcely interrupted for a moment. The earnings of the railroads centering in the city, all things considered, it is believed will fully meet expectations. When it is remembered that six years ago the earnings of all our railroads did not exceed $40,000, 40 miles of the Galena road only being completed, this result is truly astonishing. No other country in the world has ever witnessed such progress. The following table shows the earnings of all the railways centering in Chicago for the year 1857: Passengers Freight Mail, etc. Total Chi. & Mil. ------ ------ ------ 522,731.92 Rac. & Mis. ------ ------ ------ 271,608.44 C., St. P. & F. 239,308.19 178,452.66 11,544.54 429,305.39 Mil. & Mis. 1/2 (vide receipts in full) 441,408.94 G. & C. U. 726,909.58 1,321,737.67 69,258.72 2,117,904.97 F. R. Val. (our estimate) 30,000.00 Min. Pt. 8,465.29 14,465.87 650.35 23,581.51 Du. & Pa. 28,720.07 22,676.09 273.89 51,660.05 C. I. & N. 1,552.21 11,630.39 448.05 19,830.65 C., B. & Q. 592,565.81 1,280,522.76 16,497.92 1,889,586.49 B. & Mo. 30,618.45 17,836.38 589.75 49,044.58 Q. & C. 145,422.12 173,011.04 18,890.73 337,323.89 C. & R. I. 742,949.84 882,384.16 55,967.57 1,681,101.57 Miss. & Mo. 147,911.35 148,244.30 ------ 296,155.74 C., A. & St. L. 442,434.18 523,806.43 32,068.86 998,309.47 Ill. Cent. 1,064,978.46 1,037,987.55 190,998.56 2,293,964.57 P., F. W. & C. 941,175.14 653,916.61 53,787.48 1,652,727.95 M. S. & N. I. 1,316,478.21 833,053.80 31,592.96 2,186,124.97 Mich. Central 1,447,526.78 1,130,819.25 78,125.33 2,656,471.36 N. A. & S. (our estimate) 631,868.00 Total 18,590,520.26 Several new lines have been added to the above list during the past year, but in order that we may form definite ideas of the aggregate effect of the panic on our railways, we present the earnings of the twelve roads then reported for each year. EARNINGS. 1856 1857 C. & M. $650,000.00 $522,731.92 C., St. P. & F. 137,303.67 429,305.39 G. & C. U. 2,456,045.80 2,117,904.97 F. R. V. 50,000.00 30,000.00 C., B. & Q. 1,627,029.61 1,899,586.49 N. C., 6 m 215,222.79 347,323.89 C. & R. I. 1,751,704.60 1,681,101.57 C., A. & St. L. 1,000,000.00 998,309.48 Ill. Cent. 2,469,533.67 2,293,964.57 M. S. & N. I. 3,114,756.06 2,186,124.97 Mich. Central 3,128,154.10 2,656,471.36 N. A. & S. 743,492.53 631,868.00 Total $17,343,242.83 $15,784,692.60 This table certainly affords us a most gratifying result. Amid all the panic and disaster of the last year, with all the satanic efforts of certain journals in New York and other cities to destroy all railway values, the earnings of twelve railways centering in this city for 1857, fell short of their aggregate earnings in 1856 $1,558,550.23, which is some ten per cent. less than their receipts in a year of great prosperity and progress. In all the dark days through which we have passed, the Daily Press has steadily labored to inspire confidence and hope, and the results of careful comparisons in every department of business show that our positions were correct. We have the satisfaction also of knowing that our reasonings have saved many of our readers from despair and utter ruin. MOVEMENT OF PASSENGERS. The movement of passengers, as might be expected, falls short somewhat of that of the previous year; but the results show a steady and very large western movement. The following table shows the passenger traffic on our two great eastern lines: West East Thro'. Way. Total. Thro'. Way. Total. M. S. & N. I. 105,370 192,211 279,581 54,621 182,347 236,968 Mich. Central 108,995 178,630 286,415 64,746 169,227 233,973 Total 214,365 370,841 565,996 119,437 351,574 470,941 This table shows that our two great eastern lines brought to this city 94,998 passengers more than they took east from it. The figures of the four principal lines leading west from this city give the following RESULTS. West East Thro'. Way. Total. Thro'. Way. Total. C., St. P. & F. 43,518 46,199 89,717 35,046 45,026 80,073 G. & C. U. 57,786 196,802 254,786 37,724 178,880 916,010 C., B. & Q. 16,091 183,610 199,701 14,205 182,577 196,882 C. & R. I. 31,784 171,073 207,857 25,851 156,407 182,259 Total 149,179 597,684 752,061 112,826 562,990 675,224 According to these figures, these four lines of railway carried west 76,837 passengers more than they brought back to the city. If we estimate the immense numbers that come down the Ohio river in steamers, and thence up the Mississipppi, at an equal number, and add a reasonable number for those who crossed the Station the east and west lines south of this city, and also those who went west on the Wisconsin lines, and further, remember the vast numbers who annually emigrate West in their own wagons, TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND people at least, during the past year, found happy homes west of Chicago. These people are the intelligent, the enterprising, and the industrious, sifted out from the old stationary communities of the Eastern States, and from the nations of Europe. All comment as to the rapidity with which the Western States are growing in wealth, population, and power, is entirely unnecessary. As this is the last of our leading statistical articles showing the business of the city for the past year, it may be well to make a summation of the facts, that we may view them all at a glance. We present, therefore, the following GENERAL SUMMARY. Total number of miles of railway centering in Chicago Feb. 20, 1852......................................40 Total number of miles now completed and in operation......3,953 Increase in 1857............................................277 Total number to be completed in from six to ten years............................................7,234 Total number of miles of railway in the State of Illinois now in operation......................2,775 (Only 95 miles were completed six years ago.) Total earnings of all the railways centering in Chicago for the year 1857......................$18,590,520.26 Increase in six years................................18,550,520.26 Total number of trains arriving and departing daily.........120 Total number of passengers carried west by four principal railways leading out of the city............752,061 Total number remaining West above those who returned on these four lines...........................76,837 Total number moved West on two Eastern roads above those who returned East..........................94,098 Population of Chicago in 1852............................38,783 Total vote at the last municipal election................16,123 Estimated population from the above returns —allowance being made for the great numbers of unnaturalized people among us......................130,000 Total receipts of grain in Chicago for the year 1857—flour being reduced to wheat, bushels.........22,856,206 Total shipments of grain from the port of Chicago for the year 1857, bushels.........................18,032,678 Total receipts of wheat for the year 1857, bushels............................................12,525,431 Total shipments of wheat for the year 1857, bushels......................................10,783,292 Receipts of corn for the year 1857, bushels...........7,409,130 Shipments of corn for the year 1857, bushels..........6,814,615 Total number of hogs alive and dressed received in Chicago for the years 1856-7.......................220,702 Number of barrels of beef packed in 1857.................42,100 Receipts of lumber at the port of Chicago for the year 1857—being the largest lumber market in the world—feet....................................459,639,189 Total number of vessels, steamers, etc., in the port of Chicago during the past winter................250 Total number of vessels arriving in the port of Chicago during 1857..................................7,557 Total tonnage of the vessels arriving in the port of Chicago during the past year................1,753,413 Amount of capital invested in buildings, public improvements, etc., past year......................$6,423,518 These figures are themselves far more eloquent than any mere human language. The extent of our commerce, its rapid growth and certain increase in the future, are made apparent to the most skeptical reader. Let such remember that it is not twenty-one years since Chicago became a city. Let them contemplate our magnificent system of railways, all the work of the last seven years, and earning during the last year EIGHTEEN MILLIONS AND A HALF OF DOLLARS. The lands along the line of these roads are but just beginning to be developed. And yet those lands sent to this city, as a part of their surplus products, 12,524,431 bushels of wheat and 7,409,130 bushels of corn. So rapidly are they improving that Chicago received the enormous amount of 459,639,198 feet of lumber to supply her own building material and that of the magnificent country by which she is surrounded. It is a source of great satisfaction that the tide of population is largely and steadily westward. The change will in almost every instance secure for the people who emigrate a great increase of property, and thereby afford them the means of greater physical comfort and a more generous expenditure for their intellectual improvement and social elevation. Who can estimate the influence which the two hundred thousand people who sought homes west of the Lakes during the past year will have upon the social progress and the physical development of the Mississippi Valley? They are not the ignorant starveling serfs of grinding despotism, nor yet the poor degraded "white trash" of the Southern States, but intelligent, energetic, honest freemen, who plant schools and colleges and churches wherever they go. They bring with them skill, and strength, and capital too, and under their intelligent, ceaseless toil our magnificent prairies will be made to yield up their golden treasures as earth never yielded them up before. Let the stream of human energy continue to flow westward with equal power for the next twenty years, and still there will be ample room for the succeeding score of years for as many more to find rich, happy homes between the Lakes and the Rocky Mountains. The recent season of panic and revulsion through which we have passed will prompt to greater caution, and therefore greater safety, in the future. With all its evil effects, it has clearly demonstrated that there is a solid basis for the prosperity of our city and the West generally, and this fact will be of immense value hereafter. It must inspire confidence in the future, and enable the West to command the means to provide highways for the rapidly increasing commerce. The Georgian Bay Canal and the Pacific Railway are still to be built, and may we not hope the coming wave of prosperity, which must ere long roll over the land, will bear upon its bosom the means to accomplish these and similar improvements? There is good ground to hope that, so far as the latter great national highway is concerned, the solemn warning voice of a free people will ere long reach the ears of our tardy rulers—once proud of being called servants—at Washington, commanding them to lay aside sectional strife, and to address themselves to the glorious work of binding together the States of the Atlantic and the Pacific by iron bonds, never, never to be broken, so long as the "star spangled banner" floats proudly "O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave." In closing our sixth annual review, we congratulate our readers on the bright prospects which it can scarcely be doubted are opening before them. With a large surplus of last year's crop still in hand, the West is abundantly able to meet all her liabilities, and have sufficient means to make large and substantial improvements in the future. We are on the eve of a great, permanent and propitious social advancement, and let every Western man summon all his energy to act his part wisely and well. With prudent but firm step, let the watchword be— "Forward!"* ----------------- * After this year the Board of Trade issued a very comprehensive review, and we ceased to publish our several statistical articles in pamphlet form. Elaborate articles, however, have been published every 1st of January, in advance of the Board. JOHN LOCKE SCRIPPS, AND DR. CHAS. H. RAY, MY DEPARTED ASSOCIATES. I deem it proper to extract from the files of the Tribune the following tributes to the memory of my associates, whose names are above given. To me, and to many others, their "memory is blessed," for they were among the very best men I ever knew. I take the extracts as written, from the paper. The first in relation to MR. SCRIPPS was published September 23rd, 1866. The announcement of the death of John L. Scripps will be received, not alone in this city, but throughout the State of Illinois and the entire Northwest, with feelings of profound grief by his large circle of friends and acquaintances. Although his health had been failing for a long time, from an affection of the lungs it was not until last winter and immediately after the death of his wife, that his friends became alarmed. He at once gave up active business, but finding that rest from care did not improve his health, he acted upon, the advice of his friends, and went to Minneapolis, Minnesota, hoping to find in the bracing air and salubrious climate of the Upper Mississippi, that invigoration and strength which medical skill, unaided, could not afford; but years of unremitting and patient toil, added to severe domestic afflictions which had visited him, had sapped the strong constitution past human help, and, sustained by an unfaltering trust in Providence, and a conscience void of offence, he calmly passed away, at peace with man and his Maker, at Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday, September 21st, 1866. John Locke Scripps was born February 27th, 1818, in Jackson County, Missouri, a few miles west of Cape Girardeau. While still young his parents moved to Rushville, Illinois, and since that time the lamented deceased has been identified with the growth and history of the State. He graduated at McKendrie College, Lebanon, Illinois, an institution of the Methodist denomination, with high honors, and immediately after his graduation took the professorship of mathematics, in the same institution. His father was a prominent member of that church, a fact which had a powerful influence upon the whole life of the son, although it was during his last sickness that he formally identified himself with the membership of that organization. A short time after his graduation he studied law and came, to Chicago in 1847 to engage in its practice. In 1848 he bought one-third interest in the Chicago Tribune, then published by John E. Wheeler and Thomas A. Stewart. It was at that time a Free-Soil paper, and labored zealously for the election of Martin Van Buren. Mr. Scripps was its principal writer and editorial manager. The press of Chicago was then in its infancy, and an infancy by no means respectable. He at once, by his dignified labor, gave tone and character to it. He commenced writing up the financial and commercial interests of the Northwest. He originated the first distinctive review of the markets of Chicago, going about the city, mingling in daily intercourse with the merchants of that day and inspiring confidence in the reports by their accuracy and fidelity as well as respect and admiration for the editor. About that time, in company with William B. Ogden and John B. Turner, he canvassed Northern Illinois, in behalf of the projected railroad from Chicago to Galena. Mr. Scripps' careful analysis and research, furnished the statistics with which to appeal to the people for aid, while his pen did a great work in advancing the completion of this important enterprise. During his connection with the Tribune, the Gem of the Prairie, a weekly issue of the former sheet, was started. It was almost purely of a literary character and enjoyed a large degree of success, but was finally dropped and merged in the regular Weekly Tribune. Mr. Scripps' literary abilities were of a high order, his style very chaste, lucid and simple, his reasoning powers always strong and cogent, his arguments well timed, condensed and straight to the point. His invariably dignified and gentlemanly bearing, joined with these qualities, resulted in the elevation of the Chicago press, and formed the foundation of the power it has since become. In the winter of 1851-2 the Whigs of Chicago had a controlling interest in the Tribune. Mr. Scripps was a Free-Soiler, with Democratic proclivities, and sold out his interest in the paper. Shortly afterwards, in conjunction with Lieutenant Governor Bross, he started a Democratic paper, under the name of the Democratic Press, the initial number of which was issued September 16th, 1852. The Press was a Free-Soil paper, but sided strongly with Douglas and advocated his claims, until the question of the repeal of the Missouri compromise came before the country. The paper then left Mr. Douglas, and finally hoisted the Republican flag in June, 1856, when the party was formally organized under the leadership of J. O. Fremont. In the meantime, through the unremitting labors of its editors, the Press achieved a wide commercial reputation, and labored earnestly to develop the resources of the Northwest. July 1st, 1858, the Press was consolidated with the Tribune, under the name of the Press and Tribune, and Mr. Scripps with his associate went into the new concern. In 1861 Mr. Lincoln (between whom and Mr. Scripps existed a warm personal friendship) became President, and shortly after Mr. S. was appointed Postmaster of Chicago, a position which he filled with great ability for four years. It is not saying too much, nor is it injustice to the others who have held that office, to say that he was the best Postmaster Chicago ever had. His labors were constant and unremitting. Although retaining his interest in the Tribune, his time was given to his official duties, and not a day passed that did not find him in his accustomed place in the Post Office. He rapidly comprehended the routine of the office, and his quick perceptions suggested radical and important changes, both in and out of the office, which were adopted by the Department, and have since proved of great value. During his administration the war was in active progress. Mr. Scripps' sympathies were actively enlisted on the side of freedom. He urged on the good cause with all the sagacity of his counsel and lavish contributions from his pursed With his own means he organized, equipped, and sent to the war Company C, of the 72nd Illinois regiment, well known as the Scripps Guards, to the soldiers of which company, who shared his hospitalities and enjoyed the comforts his attentions bestowed upon them, the sad news of his death will come with double force. After his resignation of the office of Postmaster, he disposed of his interest in the Tribune, and associated himself as senior partner in the banking firm of Scripps, Preston & Kean, of this city. A few days later he was seized with a sudden attack of pneumonia, and for some time his recovery was considered doubtful. The disease turned, however, in his favor, when a sudden and terrible visitation of Providence again prostrated him. His wife, Mary E. Scripps, who for so many years had been his beloved companion and counsellor, on New Year's day, while in the midst of those graceful hospitalities she could so well dispense, and while talking with friends, fell dead in an instant from an affection of the heart. Mr. Scripps was at this time just convalescent from his long illness, but the suddenness and severity of the blow fell upon him with a terrible force, and for some time it was doubtful whether he would recover. He rallied from it, however, sufficiently to pay a few visits to his relatives in this city and State, and then undertook his journey to Minneapolis, from whence came the sad tidings of his death. His remains will leave St. Paul to-day (Monday), arriving here on Tuesday. He leaves a son about 16 years of age, and a little daughter of 3 years. In the death of Mr. Scripps, Chicago has lost one of her noblest men. No citizen of this or any other community ever commanded a more hearty and thorough respect from his fellows than he. Candor, integrity and courage were the marked traits of his character. He feared God, but feared no man. He would no more have thought of compromising a principle or abating an iota of his personal honor, than he would have commitied suicide. With a heart full of kindness for all men, with a lofty sense of the proprieties of life and of intercourse with his fellow men, a house ever open to the calls of hospitality, and a purse which never failed to respond to the call of suffering, he was the firmest man among ten thousand to the convictions of his conscience. A mean act, an unworthy motive, a cowardly thought, had no room in his soul. He was not insensible to public approbation, but never for an instant would he resort to the arts so common among politicians to secure popularity. He avoided the very appearance of evil. His uprightness of character and urbanity of demeanor had made him hosts of friends in city and State, and it is not too much to say that, in the meridian of his life, with his ample fortune, his unsullied record and his conspicuous talents, he might have aspired to almost any position in the gift of his fellow citizens. To those who have been associated with Mr. Scripps in the editorial profession, and who know better than others the nobility of his character and the usefulness of his life, the tidings of his death come with peculiar force and poignancy. No man ever labored more earnestly and more effectively to impress right principles upon the public mind through the medium of the press. A large share of the success achieved by the Chicago Tribune during his connection with it was due to his thoughtfulness, earnestness and unwearied perseverance. His works live after him. The seeds which he has sown will continue to bear their fruit. A noble life, filled with good deeds, adorned with the accomplishments of a Christian gentleman, has been garnered up in the treasury of the eternal kingdom. Though he be dead, he shall rise again. Every line and every word in the article is true in every particular. A more honest man, a truer, nobler patriot, a sterner advocate of the right, never lived than John Locke Scripps; and, withal, he was a most genial, accomplished gentleman. I first knew him at 171 and 171 1/2 Lake street. We used the same front door and hall in common, the Tribune on one side and the Prairie Herald on the other. Deacon Wight, now Rev. Ambrose Wight, of Bay City, Michigan, and myself, printed our own paper and the Tribune, for its proprietors, on an old Adams power press, the first ever brought to the city, propelled by Emery's horse power, on which trudged, hour by hour, an old blind, black Canadian pony. Our acquaintance soon ripened into friendship and he often urged me to buy out his partners and become associated with him in the Tribune. This I respectfully declined to do, and sold out my interest in the Herald to Mr. Wight, in the fall of 1857, and as stated in the article he sold his interest in the Tribune a few months later. He at once submitted his plans for a new Democratic paper, and we finally joined our fortunes in the enterprise. To start a newspaper even in that early day required an abundance of grit. The $6,000 loaned us by friends, for which we gave them ample real estate security, all sunk out of sight in machinery and expenses in six weeks, and not till January 1st, 1855, did either of us draw one cent from the paper that we did not pay back. At one time Mr. Scripps would sell a piece of real estate, put the money into the concern and draw it out gradually as family expenses required, and I would do the same. Thus the paper grew and prospered, but no two men ever toiled more earnestly or constantly in any enterprise, than we did to achieve it. The above article was written by Mr. George P. Upton, with the exception of the last two paragraphs, which were added by Horace White, Esq. They knew Mr. Scripps very well, it is true, but it was not possible for them to know him as intimately as I did. In all the years of our intimacy as editors and proprietors, we never had one word of dispute on any subject. Of course on matters of policy we sometimes judged differently; of right never. Discussion soon convinced one or the other, and each addressed himself with all his might to the work. At our perfect harmony of thought and action I often wondered. He was born in Missouri, brought up and educated as a Methodist, with a thorough devotion to all the best principles—none of the bad—of the Southern chivalry. One branch of his family came from an old English stock; after one of them, the great logician and metaphysician, John Locke, Mr. Scripps was named. My ancestry were mainly of Huguenot origin, myself born and brought up as a Presbyterian in the Delaware Valley, educated in a New England college, and yet we harmonized in all the trying business and political times through which we passed, perfectly. The fact is one of my most pleasant and cherished memories, its explanation I do not care to discuss. He rests in peace, and has— who can doubt it?—the reward of a good man and a life well spent, in the mansions of the blessed. DR. CHARLES H. RAY. The following article was written by Geo. P. Upton, Esq., now and for many years one of the editorial writers of the Tribune. It was published September 25th, 1870. Dr. Charles H. Ray is dead! The sudden and unexpected intelligence, briefly announced in our issue of yesterday, has cast a deep gloom over his large circle of acquaintances and friends, and will come with all the force of a personal bereavement to the thousands of readers in the Northwest who have known him, for many years past, as a powerful, influential, and successful journalist. It was only a few days ago that we talked with him half an hour or more. He was unusually hopeful of himself, and spoke so encouragingly of his future prospects, and had so many well laid journalistic plans, that we were encouraged to think he would, before long, be restored to his former usefulness and vigor, although he seemed to us as feeble as a child, compared with his former robust and powerful physical habit. We had an earnest conversation with him upon the best means of giving a higher standing and character to Art in Chicago—a subject in which he was always deeply interested— and then we parted. We missed him for a few days, and then the shadow of death came between us, and he passed evermore from our sight. Dr. Charles H. Ray was born at Norwich, Chenango County, N. Y., March 12, 1821, and removed to the West in 1843. He commenced his Western life in the practice of medicine at Muscatine, Iowa, and subsequently settled in Tazewell County, Ill., where he pursued his profession for many years with success. During these years he was married to Miss Jane Yates Per-Lee, a most estimable lady, who died in this city, in June, 1862, leaving, as the fruits of the union, one daughter and three sons, all of whom are living. In the year 1851, Dr. Ray removed to Galena, and bought the Jeffersonian, a daily Democratic journal, and conducted it with remarkable success, until the time of the Kansas-Nebraska struggle, when his strong impulses toward freedom induced him to take open issue with Judge Douglas, and eventually led to the disposal of the paper and his identification with the Republican party, then in the preliminary stage of organization. In 1854-55, Dr. Ray was Secretary of the Illinois Senate, and presided as such during the exciting canvass in that body, which elected Lyman Trumbull United States Senator over his opponent, Abraham Lincoln. He gave his influence to the former, but in such an open, manly way that it never disturbed the close personal friendship which existed between himself and the latter, and which continued to exist to the time of Mr. Lincoln's death. When the Legislature adjourned, Dr. Ray came to Chicago with the intention of starting a penny Republican paper. During the Legislative session he had been the Springfield correspondent of the New York Tribune, and his masterly letters to that paper had brought him into extensive public notice as a writer. He wrote to Mr. Greeley on the subject of a partner, asking him to recommend some suitable person, to which Mr. Greeley replied with a letter of introduction to Joseph Medill, Esq., of the Cleveland Leader, who was just about coming to Chicago with the object of connecting himself with the press of this city. Mr. Medill arrived in Chicago at about the same time as Dr. Ray, and, after an interview, the former abandoned the idea of a penny paper, and joined the latter in buying as much of the Tribune establishment of General Webster and Timothy Wright, Esq., as their means would allow. He had identified himself editorially with the Tribune in April, 1855, but did not assume his proprietary interest until June of the same year, which he held until November 20, 1863, at which time he sold his interest and severed his editorial connection with the paper, to engage in other pursuits. Those pursuits not proving successful, he returned to the Tribune, May 25, 1865, as an editorial writer, and after laboring ten weeks, he left the paper and embarked in another business. Two years later, he was offered a favorable interest in the Evening Post of this city, which he accepted and retained until he died. With Dr. Ray's connection with the Tribune, and his manly, straightforward, and vigorous editorial conduct during the Chicago riots, the excitements of the Kansas war, the war of the rebellion, and all the great events which culminated in the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency, the public are familiar. His writings were so sharp and trenchant, so eloquently denunciatory of wrong and so searching in criticism, that they were copied far and wide, and exerted a powerful influence—always upon the side of the right, and did much to establish its reputation as a fearless, outspoken journal. He wrote with an untiring vigor and with a searching analysis which went down to the very heart and core of the matter, whether he was exposing some iniquitous political scheme or moral wrong, or was exhibiting some military official in the light of his incompetency. There was not a "conservative" drop of blood in his veins. He always expected, and demanded, progress, both political, moral and humane. He never needed any urging in a radical direction; but, on the other hand, his zeal sometimes needed restraint. He never consulted policy, for he had no policy in his disposition. He never looked at consequences when he believed himself right, for he was absolutely fearless. When once settled upon a course, he would say to his associates. This is the right course, and we must pursue it to the end, regardless of consequences. He cared for no pecuniary injury as the result of advocating an unpopular doctrine. When subscribers dropped off, as a consequence, he would say, "Let them go. We are right. They will all come back in a few weeks, and bring others with them," and his words were more than once verified. When Dr. Ray left the Tribune, in 1863, it was with the idea of acquiring a fortune for his children, and giving them and their education more personal attention than he could do while engaged in the pressing demands of editorial duties. His speculations were at first very successful, and he amassed a handsome competence. Shortly after, he married Miss Julia Clark, a daughter of Judge Lincoln Clark, for a long time a prominent public man in Iowa, but then resident in Chicago, two daughters being the result of this second union. Blessed with the deep and strong affections of his family, and enjoying financial prosperity, everything seemed bright. About the time of this marriage he wisely concluded to settle on his wife and children half his property, which, through trustees, was invested in improved real estate in this city, and which has since largely advanced in value and yields them a respectable support. With the remainder of his means he embarked in new enterprises, which proved, in the common decline of values, unsuccessful, and he resolved once more to return to the editorial profession, in which he worked with his old energy and vigor. His excessive labor in the exciting canvass in this county, last fall, superinduced an attack of brain fever, in December last, followed by many weeks of intense suffering and utter mental and physical prostration. He at last recovered sufficiently to go to Cleveland, where he received medical treatment. He then went to Northampton, Mass., where he remained for several weeks, returning to Chicago early in the summer. He at once resumed his position in the Post as editor-in-chief. Since that time, he has written but little. But his articles showed the old fire, and some of them struck with the old force, but it soon became evident that the man was wearying, that the pen was dropping from the reluctant fingers, and that the great brain could not much longer stand the demands upon it. On Tuesday last his old disease returned with twofold violence and resulted in death at a quarter past one o'clock on Saturday morning. It would be useless for us to say anything further of Dr. Ray as a journalist. The public knows how well he has filled that difficult position during the past fifteen or more years in this city; and his able and vigorous editorials have always been a mirror in which the public could see the writer. It was impossible for the veriest dullard to mistake the meaning of anything he wrote. In our professional association with him, which has extended over many years, we learned to prize him as a man, and to hold him dear as a friend. He was not one, perhaps, to attract numerous friendships, for he was brusque and impetuous in his manner, and specially impatient of annoyance. But those who knew him best, knew how genial he was at heart, how strong his affections were, and how almost faultless he was in critical taste. He was intense in his likes and dislikes. He was bitter against an enemy, but he could not do too much for a friend. We have seen him fairly crush insincerity with an explosion of his wrath, and then turn and relieve the wants of a traveling beggar, and give him kindly advice. He was the best friend a young man commencing newspaper life could have, for the reason that he was chary of praise and never slow at pointing out faults, and suggesting the remedy. Perhaps the most striking feature of his character was his hatred of cant and sham. He recognized a hypocrite instinctively, and he never stopped to select choice or elegant phrases in exposing him. We cannot remember a man so plain-spoken in denunciation of humbug or hypocrisy. He hit it with all his might, and his might was immense. And yet, this Samson was full of humanity, kindly courtesy, and noble, hearty manliness. With all his multifarious duties, private and public, which were often very perplexing, he found time to devote much attention to literature and art, and, in these directions, his taste was fastidious, and his manner quick and resolved. He was as impatient of sham in a book, in a painting, or in the music room, as he was of a sham in life, and his criticism was almost always just, even though it was excoriating. The class of men who can not be politic enough to compromise with hypocrisy is so scarce that it is refreshing to recall this trait in Dr. Ray's character. It made enemies, of course, but that was of little account to him. The man who has no enemies must be all things to all men. He was a hard worker, and, in his prime, was capable of an immense amount of labor, for he was physically very strong. Few men in the journalistic profession, indeed, have combined such power to labor, such keen perceptions, such a nervous, trenchant style, and such manly and vigorous grappling with private and public evils. But the pen rests forever. The busy brain, so active that it wore upon itself, is silent. We who are left behind, shall long miss his hearty welcome, his cheery, outspoken voice, and his manly presence. Of those who were identified with the Tribune in the early days of its existence, three are now gone— Scripps, Ballantyne, and Ray. Who next? His memory remains with us, and that is precious, and we can recall nothing in his long and useful career which did not bespeak the man and the gentleman. May his rest be peaceful after the fitful fever of his life! With every sentiment and every word of the above I most cordially agree. Dr. Ray was one of the ablest, and in spite of the brusqueness to which Mr. Upton refers, one of the best men I ever knew. I first came to know him well, I think, in the summer of 1854, when he was editing the Galena Jeffersonian. The anxiety and the hard work which the terrible onslaughts of Mr. Douglas and his friends made upon our paper for opposing the repeal of the Missouri compromise, broke Mr. Scripp's health and he had to give up all writing and betake himself to his home for two months or more before the election, and for nearly as long after it. Of course I had the entire management of the paper and was glad to get an article from any friend that offered. Dr. Ray would sometimes come into the office and volunteer half a column or more. Some of the strongest and most effective articles that appeared in the Democratic Press or any other paper during that canvass were written by Dr. Ray. These were only occasional favors, but they were always timely and most valuable. In 1858, we, J. L. Scripps, Dr. Ray, Mr. Medill and myself, came together as partners and equal owners in the Tribune, Mr. Cewles having then a smaller interest. For the five years that I was the most intimately associated with Dr. Ray, we never had a word of dispute on any subject. Once, indeed, he gave me "a piece of his mind," rather emphatically, but it was all on his side, for I was thoughtlessly, though really in the wrong, in some things that I published. I acknowledged my fault and all was well. In all the years we were associated together, the discussion of the question Is it right? controlled the policy of the paper. Sometimes it required a great deal of care and investigation to determine it. For instance, I was with Prentiss' army on its march from Ironton to Cape Girardeau, and became satisfied that Fremont, as a general, was a failure, and so wrote home to my associates. Then Mr. Medill went with the army to Jefferson City and came back with the same report. Dr. Ray then went down to St. Louis and got a great variety of facts from his friends in that city, and finally Mr. Scripps did the same thing; and then after full consultation Dr. Ray wrote a four or five column article in his most vigorous, trenchant style, calling for Fremont's removal, and giving the reasons for it. It created a tremendous excitement, and cost us hundreds of subscribers and thousands of dollars. The course of the Tribune during and before the war was the result of the matured opinions of four independent thinkers, and hence it was always right. With two such honest, able, patriotic and scholarly men as Mr. Scripps and Dr. Ray, not to mention Mr. Medill, with his sharp, discriminating mind, his wide acquaintance with men and things, and his acute journalistic and broad common sense, and with whatever I could contribute to the common stock, is it any wonder the Tribune achieved a national reputation? It had the credit, and justly, of bringing out Mr. Lincoln, and doing more than any other paper to secure his nomination, and of doing most effective work in his election to the Presidency. During the entire war it never flinched nor faltered for a moment. It led and guided public opinion in the Northwest; inspired confidence amid defeat and disaster; always advocated the most vigorous measures to put down the rebellion; drove the Copperheads to their holes, and to say the least, it has probably done as much as any other journal or influence in the country to bring back the peace and the security which it now enjoys. With such men as Scripps and Ray editing and inspiring their own journal, and through it giving right direction to the press of the country, it will indeed ever remain "the palladium of our liberties," the unflinching foe of all that is false and wicked; and be ever ready to use all its influence and its power to promote the social, the intellectual and the moral welfare of the race. 1871. From the Chicago Tribune, March 29th, 1871. CANADIAN WATER ROUTES. THE CHICAGO COMMITTEE AT OTTAWA, CANADA. The committee (Messrs. Bross, Holden, and McMullen) sent by a public meeting at the Board of Trade rooms to Ottawa, Canada, to represent to the Dominion Parliament the importance of increased facilities of transit by the St. Lawrence route between the Upper Lakes and the seaboard, returned to the city yesterday. They report the very best of feeling in Canada in relation to this important subject, and that their reception was of the most cordial and friendly character. The Railway and Canal Committee of the Canadian Parliament is composed of some fifty of the leading members, and other gentlemen were also present when the Chicago Committee were invited to appear before this large body, and to lay before them any communication they might wish to make. The following account of the proceedings is taken from the Ottawa papers of the 24th: Increased Facilities of Transit for the Commerce of the Lakes to the Ocean. Remarks of Ex-Lieutenant Governor Bross, of Illinois, before the Canal and Railway Committee of the Canadian Parliament, March 23, 1871. Honorable Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: I thank you most cordially, in behalf of myself and associates, for your very kind invitation to appear before you. We are here simply to express to you our deep interest, and that of our city and the West generally, in the progress and development of your great lines of internal improvements, and to assure you that, in due time, the West will furnish them with all the business they can possibly do. The West will be thankful for the use of any and all the means of transit to the seaboard which you now have or may hereafter construct. Hence, we trust that you will enlarge the Welland Canal, and open the Ottawa route; but, from our stand point, knowing how rapidly the vast resources of the Northwest are developing by the extension of our railways, many of our leading business men have come to the conclusion that the Huron and Ontario Ship Canal, avoiding entirely the St. Clair Flats, Lake Erie, and the Welland Canal, with only eighty miles of canal and slack water navigation, and with the capacity to pass vessels of a thousand or twelve hundred tons burden, and a corresponding enlargement of the St. Lawrence Canals, is the only channel adequate to the real wants of the commerce of the country west of Lake Michigan. I can scarcely hope to state anything new to this large assembly of learned and eminent gentlemen in regard to this subject; but I beg to introduce a few facts in relation to the growth of the Northwest which we trust may be worthy of your consideration. I hold in my hand the report of the survey of the Huron and Ontario Ship Canal, made by Mr. Tully, as engineer, and Colonel R. B. Mason, now Mayor of Chicago, as consulting engineer, and published in 1857. In that report there is a table showing what were then the population and resources of the several Northwestern States, with an estimate of their probable increase, and of its effects upon the revenues of the canal for a series of years, based on an increase of 29 per cent, for every five years 1850 to 1855. In that table the population of the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, is given, in 1857, at 3,090,000. On the ratio as above, they are estimated to be, in 1870, 5,907,716, and in 1880, 9,980,776. The census for 1870 shows that they now have a population of 10,759,981, nearly twice the estimate for 1870, and nearly a million more than the estimate for 1880. So certainly are all the figures of our boldest statisticians far exceeded by the actual facts as time rolls onward. Leaving out of the account the population of the two great States, Ohio and Indiana, the remaining States above mentioned, for whose business the canal could legitimately compete, with the exception, perhaps, of the eastern half of Michigan, which would be more than balanced by the trade of Nebraska, have now a population of 6,419,510. The city of Chicago, in 1857, had a population of 130,000; it has now 300,000. The shipments of grain in that year from Chicago were 18,483,678 bushels; last year they were 54,745,903; just about three times what they were thirteen years previous. The revenues of the canal, estimated from a careful analysis of the commerce of the Lakes previous to 1857, would have been in 1865, had it then been completed, $1,126,758, and for 1870, $1,450,577. As the population of the Northwestern States from 1857 to 1870 increased threefold, it will be safe to double the estimates for the receipts of the canal for tUe last year. This would give for last year a total revenue of $2,907,034; and by 1880 on the same premises it would exceed $4,000,000. We are well aware that the construction of this canal would cost a large amount of money. But the country to furnish it with business is vast in extent, and unbounded in resources. There are 700,000 square miles of territory between Lake Michigan and the Rocky Mountains, not counting your own rich fertile region in the valleys of the Red River and the Saskatchewan enough to form fourteen States as large as Ohio. On an average the land is richer and far more productive than the soil of that State. This country is now filling up with a hardy, industrious, enterprising population more rapidly than was ever before known in the history of our Republic. Our city and the Northwest are greatly obliged to Canada for the large number of excellent citizens she has sent us. Through this vast fertile country railways are penetrating in all directions. The great central line is finished, and the cars run from ocean to ocean. The North Pacific Railway will, undoubtedly, be done in five years, and the extent of the commerce which all these lines will pour upon Lake Michigan, no sane man would dare to put down in figures had he the ability to do it. To accommodate it, the West looks mainly to the Lakes and the mighty St. Lawrence. We know full well, to quote a remark I made years ago, "that national pride and immense capital and the beaten track of commerce are on the side of New York; but God and nature are stronger than all these, and let any intelligent man compare the 'Erie ditch' with the mighty St. Lawrence, and a canal to pass vessels of 1,000 tons burden from the Georgian Bay to Lake Ontario, and he cannot doubt for a moment on which side the immutable laws of commerce will decide the contest." What the West wants are the cheapest and the largest possible outlets to the ocean. She cares not a rush for New York. While that city nurtures such men as Vanderbilt, who waters the stock of his railway two or three times over, and the demands from the West full rates on the results of his "ways that are dark" and tricks that are villainous; while Fisk and Gould flourish in that city, the West is purely free to cultivate the most intimate relations with their neighbors across the line. What if our commerce benefits Canada; what if it builds up Toronto and makes another New York of Montreal or Quebec, always we trust bating the rascality of Wall street; the benefits will be mutual and entirely reciprocal to the people of the West. We think we can safely assure you that a large majority of the West are in favor of reciprocal free trade with Canada and with all mankind as well; and what is more, they are determined to have it. If our legislators now at Washington will not give it to us, the West will send men there who will. With the Lakes and one of the great rivers of the world to make their commercial relations close and almost identical, speaking the same language, and with the same progressive Christian civilization, Canada and the Northwestern States of America have a common and an absorbing interest in all that can elevate and enoble our common humanity. I close, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, with an expression of the most cordial thanks for the very kind and courteous manner in which you have received us. Hon. Mr. Holton thanked Mr. Bross for his able and eloquent speech. He believed there was no division of sentiment on this subject among parties in Canada. The views which had been expressed coincided exactly with his own. There were questions, of course, as to the choice of route of proposed canals, but he would assure the gentlemen from Chicago that the views of the people were in unison with what had been so ably expressed by Mr. Bross. Sir F. Hincks expressed his gratification at what he had heard, and agreed generally with what Mr. Bross had said. He therefore had much pleasure in moving a vote of thanks to the Hon. Mr. Bross and the gentlemen who accompanied him for the information they had given and the kindly sentiments they had expressed. Mr. Shanley said he had listened with great pleasure to what had been said on this important subject. We in Canada had the great natural outlet for the immense trade of the West; our position on this continent was unequaled, owing to the St. Lawrence and the great Lakes, yet we had done but little to improve our great natural advantages. This subject had been spoken of for years, but had never found a more practical result than reports. Hon. Mr. Anglin hoped the government would take this question earnestly in hand, and should they do so they would have the support of the people of the Eastern Provinces in carrying it out. [Hear, hear.] Mr. Capreol then addressed the committee. He pointed out the great advantages of public works for promoting immigration. Sir A. T. Gait was glad to welcome the gentlemen from Chicago. The reason why the route to the West had not been opened up was the want of a good understanding with the United States, but he hoped for a better state of things in the future. He had much pleasure in seconding the motion of Sir F. Hincks. Hon. Mr. Holden then rose and expressed his gratification on meeting the members of the committee. He hoped the result of this meeting would be gratifying to both parties concerned. He supported the views expressed by Mr. Bross, and thanked the committee for the kind reception extended to them. Sir G. E. Cartier said he was glad to hear the clear and forcible exposition which had been made by the Hon. Mr. Bross, and was happy to learn that the Western people properly estimated the influence of New York. The Treasury at Washington bad pursued a policy calculated to build up the Atlantic cities at the expense of the interior country. According to his views there was a natural commercial bond between Canada and the Western States, and a feeling of sympathy that we were willing to cultivate if the United States Treasury would pursue a more equitable policy. He thought the Western people should consider our country their natural seaboard while we regarded their trade and commerce a part of our own as their prosperity was, rightly considered, the prosperity of the Dominion. [Hear, hear. ] The motion was then put and carried with applause. The committee then adjourned until noon to-day. The committee were invited to breakfast on Friday morning by Sir Francis Hincks, and, by invitation, dined with His Excellency Lord Lisgar, Governor General of the Dominion, on Saturday evening. Thos. Reynolds, Esq., the Managing Director of the Ottawa Railway, sent them to Prescott in his own car. At Toronto they spent half a day with F. C. Capreol, Esq., the indefatigable President of the Huron and Ontario Ship Canal Company, who was, throughout, most efficient in contributing to the comfort of the committee and advancing the commercial interests of Canada and the West. The following article is from the Ottawa Times of Friday, the 24th: FROM LAKE TO OCEAN. We direct the especial attention of our readers to the speech of the Hon. William Bross, ex-Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, on the subject of the transport of produce from the Western States to the ocean. The subject is one to which we have often alluded as being of the utmost importance, and perhaps no one is more thoroughly able to deal with it intelligently than the gentleman to whose remarks we refer. Whatever may be the views adopted by our government in reference to the exact nature of our canal policy, and whether or not they may feel justified in agreeing to the propositions made by Mr. Bross and the other delegates from Chicago, we may rely upon it that nothing but good can spring from the visit of these American gentlemen to the Canadian capital, and from a free interchange of thought and opinion between them and our leading public men. Our neighbors will find that but one desire exists here, as far as our social and commercial relations with the United States arc concerned, viz.: that they shall be of the most intimate and friendly character—and without at the present moment entering into a discussion as to the respective merits of the various canal schemes proposed, we feel justified in saying on behalf of the government and people of this Dominion, that they are thoroughly alive to the importance of establishing a commodious water highway from the Western Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, through the Valley of the St. Lawrence, and are disposed to work energetically with that end in view. Additional Comments: HISTORY OF CHICAGO. HISTORICAL AND COMMERCIAL STATISTICS, SKETCHES, Facts and Figures, REPUBLISHED FROM THE "DAILY DEMOCRATIC PRESS." What I Remember of Early Chicago; A LECTURE, DELIVERED IN McCORMICK'S HALL, JANUARY 23, 1876, (Tribune, January 24th,) By WILLIAM BROSS, Ex-Lieut. Governor of Illinois. CHICAGO: JANSEN, MCCLURG & Co., BOOKSELLERS, PUBLISHERS, ETC. 1876 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/cook/history/1876/historyo/historyo99nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/ File size: 85.6 Kb